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Friday, October 4, 2013

Body Contact

The sounds of grunts, muttered exclamations, flesh slapping flesh, and bodies hitting the hard, wood floor echoed through the room, interspersed with sudden bursts of laughter. The couple grappling on the floor strained against each other, the woman fighting to free herself from the choke hold and the legs pinning her own legs apart. She was on top of her male opponent, back pressed against his chest as she strained to free herself. The woman was scrabbling at the arm around her neck, when a startled exclamation was heard.

The two people on the floor swiveled their heads towards the sound to see the man's roommate staring at them in shock. The woman started laughing and choked out a "hello." The roommate stammered out a greeting in response, followed by an awkward apology. At this, the man on the floor, still maintaining a choke hold on the woman, also began to chuckle. The roommate sidled along the side of the room, muttering something about going outside to smoke. The man watched his roommate leave, and the woman took advantage of his distraction to break his hold and scurry out of reach.

With a look mixed of amusement and annoyance, the man claimed, "He distracted me!"

The woman replied, with a wide grin and laughter, "Works just fine for me. I'll take it!"

They were still sitting on the floor, chatting and breathing, when the roommate cautiously re-entered the room. He gave the couple a quick, covert look before dashing back to his room. At the sight, the woman broke out into laughter again.

"Your poor roommate. He is rather unsure what he just walked into."

"He is probably thinking, 'Jae is always training, why is he always training? And who was that hot girl that he was with?'"

The woman, Kay, just chuckled.

After a few more moments, they both stood and started circling around the room. Jae rushed at Kay, which she managed to dodge. Jae nodded in appreciation and they kept moving. He charged her again, catching her around the throat again- his favorite hold.

"You need to learn to get out of these, because you can be killed with this hold. Also, don't freak out now, most guys attacking you are most likely going to be sexual predators, so they are probably going to do something like this to make you nervous."

He demonstrated by pressing his pelvis to Kay's rear, while maintaining his choke hold on her throat and arching his back, bringing her to her toes. She nodded her understanding, while trying to get her fingers under his arm to create room so she could breath. He continued to demonstrate just what could be done with the particular choke hold by lifting her completely off her feet three times. Kay could feel her air cut off and worked to get her chin down between his arm and her throat. It was a good thing the neighbors didn't look out their window at that moment. They would have completely misunderstood what they were witnessing and the cops would have followed shortly after.

Jae asked, "You all right?"

Kay responded, "We're good."

They kept going. Holds varied from krav maga, jujitsu, judo, and general self-defense. Kay had to work hard to get away from Jae. He was not much taller than her, but he was corded with muscle and his martial arts training was of military quality and intensity. She found herself frequently pinned to the floor in awkward, and sometimes painful positions, arms locked and legs rendered immobile. That did not stop her, however. Kay kept moving, shifting, forcing them to roll and slide around the room. If she could get even a hand free, she would reach for his eyes, doing a "light" gouge, forcing his head back or to the side, at which point she would try to grab his chin and force his head up further in an effort to loosen his hold or lessen his body weight. If her hand was lower, she would reach for tendons, pressure points, and if need be (or if possible), a light slap next to his inside thigh or groin. They may be fighting hard, and Kay was going to fight dirty, but even so, she wasn't going to intentionally cause damage in those areas. She did like the guy, after all. She had already kicked Jae in the side of his throat, catching him just under his jaw, as well as getting in a couple of solid kicks to his groin or inside thigh earlier that morning.

Kay worked to remember the self-defense training she had taken and the tricks learned growing up in a family of boys and law enforcement. She shrimped when possible (Jae had an amazingly tight grip on her hips when straddling her, making this unusually difficult), she arched her back and hips in an effort to unseat Jae, and squirmed to get her legs out from under him so she could get her feet on his pelvis and push him away. Kay used every tool she had, including her sweat-slicked skin, in an effort to escape the locks Jae was able to pin her in.

Sounds of effort, short bursts of laughter, and the occasional muffled, "You all right?" echoed in the sparsely furnished room. After a few more queries by Jae, Kay whipped out, "I'll tap out if I'm not. Stop worrying about hurting me."

The rolling continued. Whenever Kay managed to successfully get away from Jae, she would make as much distance as possible from him and they would begin circle once again. Jae always followed Kay, as they worked on dodging from an attack, fighting back, and escaping. One interesting charge had Kay lifted completely off of the floor, horizontal to the ground, all by Jae grabbing one of her legs. She couldn't help but laugh at the odd feeling that particular lift engendered. She felt an odd combination of weightless and unbalanced. After just a moment of levitation, Kay found herself back on the floor, scrabbling to get away. In the struggle, her head made solid contact with the hard, wood floor a number of times. She didn't notice, but Jae did and had to fight back the urge to ask if she was all right. The couple kept fighting and time kept moving.

Eventually, the two were still, just laying on the floor and breathing. Kay commented wryly, "I'm going to be decorated in bruises. You better have a few to show off as well, or I'm going to be annoyed."

Jae looked worried momentarily before shrugging. "You're a strong woman. You did very good."

Kay huffed. "Not well enough. You are hard to escape from. I'm incredibly out of practice."

Jae just grinned and Kay made a face at him. They set up the next session for a self-defense sparring/training session, both feeling the physical rush of a good workout and the release of stress and tension. Ah, to have friends that allow you to try and beat them up... those are special friends indeed.